Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Hard things and tough places

I pray for brokenness, I pray for humility, I pray for growth, I pray for understanding...and yet I want it all sitting from the comfort of my 1938 brick home sipping a diet coke on my 3-season porch.

When the hard stuff comes, I grab my flip flops (because we all know I am not a runner) and I head for the door.

The door is the easy way out. The door doesn't force me to do soul-searching or challenge me to change. The door allows me to run and hide from the hard.

Beauty and growth and change and God's glory can't be found on my porch or by running out the door.

These things require me to fully embrace the story God is writing for my life. Sometimes that story is filled with great joy and abundant blessings. And other times that story is filled with change and trust and unknown...and hard.

It's when we enter into the hard things and face the tough places that God brings us to a greater awareness of Him and dependence on Him.

I read two posts today about hard things and tough places. The words are insightful, powerful, convicting and compelling:

"And this is what I learned: the hard does not minimize His goodness but allows us to experience His goodness in a whole new way." Such wise word from Katie. Go read her post. It will leave you breathless.

"But it's in the tough places, that He teaches me. If life was always pretty and perfect, I wouldn't know how to search for the beauty. Beauty is often wedged between the hard and uncomfortable, adjacent to the difficult." Truthful words from Kristen. Her post is worth the read.

After reading these words I must ask myself: Do I believe this? Do I trust that the hard will allow me to experience God's goodness in a whole new way? Do you? If so, why do I run from the hard?

Do I believe that it's in the tough places that God teaches me? Am I willing to face the hard and uncomfortable and difficult to find the beauty? Are you?

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In Its Time

I am a wife, a mother and a saved-by-grace writer who is learning to rest in the truth that He makes everything beautiful in its time. I write about the One whose timing and ways and plans I do not understand, but who gives joy in the midst of waiting and brings beauty out of ashes.